grizzer – Mar 26, 2006 12:00 AM

Grizzer's been asserting his status with a bit more authority lately, and the wolves have noticed. If you check out Shadow and Maya's logs, you will see their response to his demonstration of status. Maya seems to be the most inclined to show Grizzzer his place, and she is strongly supported by Shadow. The behavior sequence photographed for the logs actually started with Grizzer doing a playbow, a behavior where one wolf crouches low on their front haunches, encouraging other wolves to chase or interact. Grizzer did manage to stimulate the other wolves to interact, not sure if the result was what he wanted. These dominance rituals may appear intense, but in the nature of the wolf communcation structure, they're just an every day communication. As quick as they are stimulated, they tend to end and the wolves go about their business of finding something else of interest. I posted two photos today, the most interesting distraction has been the melting ice in the pond, Grizzer attempted to pick up a 4 foot sheet of ice.